The board of directors of the Press Club of Cleveland voted Friday to award this year's "Chuck Heaton Good Guy"award to Jim McIntyre, morning newsman for WHK AM 1420 and host of the station's "11th Hour" interview program.
Full disclosure: Jim is your Tipoff columnist's big brother. The Kent State University grad has also been a fixture in Cleveland media for nearly three decades. Jim worked at WERE radio for his first job in Cleveland, calmly delivering the news while Morton Downey Jr. handled the talking or, rather, the shouting.
He was the news director of the old 3WE before it became WTAM and, after a yearlong stint as an assignment editor at WEWS TV 5, he spent the bulk of his career delivering news alongside Trapper Jack on WDOK. He earned his title "Infoman" every day, coming up with answers long before Google turned everyone into an instant Jeopardy! champ.
The Chuck Heaton Award is given to a current or former print, radio, or television journalist who best exemplifies the sensitivity and humility which, along with his writing talent, were traits exhibited by the legendary Plain Dealer sportswriter.
The award previously has been given to Terry Pluto (Plain Dealer), John Tellich (WJW Channel 8), Herb Thomas (WJW Channel 8), Margaret Bernstein (Plain Dealer) and Jack Marschall (Formerly WOIO Channel 19).
Jim McIntyre is not a good guy. He's a great guy.
Before he and Trapper Jack were inexplicably dismissed from WDOK 102.1 FM last year, he picked up and drove the vision-impaired Trapper to work every morning. He visits sick veterans at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, distributes communion at his church, gladly plays emcee for charity events, shares headlines each week with the Cleveland Rotary at the Club's luncheons, cuts our Aunt Joyce's grass and makes a mean Manhattan for his baby brother.
Cheers to you on this great honor, Jimmy Mac. You deserve it.
But mom still liked me best.
More perfection: We asked you last week to tell us about high schoolers who nailed a perfect score on their ACT tests. We heard from Hathaway Brown school where junior Michele Zhou was perfect. Way to go.
And HB senior Alyssa Bryan, who aced the ACT last year, was just named a U.S. Presidential Scholar. She's the only Northeast Ohio student to get the honor and the only girl in Ohio. There are 141 Presidential Scholars nationwide.
She's not just a great test taker: Alyssa has spent the last four years working in Case Western Reserve University's Center for Global Health and Diseases, studying the effects of malaria on fetal and neonatal health. She began the research when she was 14.
Alyssa, who lives in Bainbridge, will be honored June 15 in Washington, D.C. with other Presidential Scholars. Each brings a teacher who most influenced the student. Aly picked her math teacher for the past four years, William Adler.
Said Adler: "She's always doing something amazing."
Alyssa is keeping up a school tradition. Previous presidential scholars include: Laney Kuenzel (Class of 2008) Edith Hines (2000) and Caroline Campbell (1998).
Riding high: After several years receiving an honorable mention, Cleveland finally got some medal from the League of American Bicyclists. Cleveland achieved a bronze in the Bicycle Friendly Community ratings.
"It is an exciting time to be on a bike in Cleveland," notes the Bike Cleveland Web site. "While we still have a long way to go in terms of installation of on-the-ground bicycle facilities compared to many cities on the BFC list, the City of Cleveland has paved the path for faster implementation through policies like the Complete and Green Streets Ordinance and better enforcement through the Bicycle Transportation Safety Ordinance, which requires motorists to give bicycles 3-feet when passing."
The very best communities in the country for biking, those that achieved a platinum level, are: Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., Fort Collins, Colo. and Davis, Calif. There are 247 bicycle friendly communities in 47 states, according to the League.
Tour Old Brooklyn: For a good look at the emerging bicycling culture in Cleveland, head out to Old Brooklyn this morning.
The neighborhood's 4th Annual "Pedal for Prizes" offers $5,000 worth of prizes, including six new bikes.
This is no Tour de France. After morning registration at Loew Park, riders are given maps of 20 businesses and landmarks in Old Brooklyn where they must ride -- at a leisurely pace -- and have their cards punched. The cards are later redeemed for raffle tickets for prizes, including the bike, Indians tickets, and restaurant gift certificates.
Registration begins at 11 a.m. and businesses will stop punching cards at 2:45 p.m. Last year, the event attracted 500 cyclists.
And fair warning: You'd better be pedaling, according to this stern warning on the event's Web page:
"Pedal for Prizes is meant to be a fun event done by bicycle. We have no tolerance for people who use other means of transportation (i.e. motor vehicle) to travel to destinations. Participants found to be using forms of transportation other than a bicycle will have their punch cards revoked and will be barred from participating in the raffle."